MSV Day at the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley Is Great Family Value!

Winchester, VA 02/11/14…Admission to the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley (MSV) will be free during MSV Day, which takes place this Saturday, February 15, from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m.

An eagerly anticipated, annual free event, this year’s MSV Day is especially notable because it offers visitors the opportunity to experience the popular Becoming Patsy Cline exhibition, see new displays of Valley decorative arts, view two new Art in the Halls displays, participate in free gallery talks for the entire family, and enjoy free performances by Shenandoah Conservatory’s Saxophone Quartet. In addition, throughout the day children and families may drop by the Museum’s BB&T Learning Center to color pages featuring Museum highlights and make mini-versions of a nineteenth-century carousel horse and the historic “Old Jake” weathervane that are on view in the MSV. Visitors may also enter a free drawing to win a one-year Family Membership to the Museum.

According to MSV Executive Director Dana Hand Evans, MSV Day is an important event on the Museum’s schedule. Along with inviting first-time Museum visitors to stop by, Evans hopes that Saturday’s free admission will encourage Shenandoah Valley families to experience the Museum together. While general admission to the Museum is always free to ages 12 and under, Saturday’s event offers adults free admission, as well.   

Free admission includes the day’s gallery talks. Offered for all ages, these talks will feature the folk-art art form called fraktur, a carousel horse from Shenandoah County dating to the late 1800s, and Valley coverlets. For adults, tours will begin at 10:30 a.m. and take place hourly until 3:30 p.m. For children, talks will take place at 11 a.m., 1 p.m., and 2 p.m. Youngsters also may experience the Valley’s decorative arts in a special, hands-on display that will be available throughout the day.

In the Reception Hall at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m., Shenandoah Conservatory’s Saxophone Quartet will play a mix of Ragtime, American folk, and Broadway melodies. The group includes conservatory faculty and students under the leadership of Timothy Roberts, associate professor of saxophone at Shenandoah Conservatory.

Galleries in the 50,000-square-foot MSV tell the story of the Shenandoah Valley and host rotating exhibitions. Here visitors may explore Valley history in the Shenandoah Valley Gallery, see a fascinating collection of furnished miniature houses and rooms in the R. Lee Taylor Miniatures Gallery, and tour special exhibitions that tell the stories of Patsy Cline, the Shenandoah Valley’s greatest cultural icon, and entertaining in the Museum’s Glen Burnie Historic House during the 1960s. Saturday’s visitors also will be the first to see the Shenandoah Valley Gallery’s new display of pottery. This display features more than 30 ceramic objects from the MSV Collection, including four recent pottery acquisitions that will be on public view for the first time.

In the Museum Lobby, visitors may enter a free drawing to win a one-year Family Membership to the MSV ($75 value) and add their names to the Museum’s mailing list to receive a free quarterly calendar of events.

Also on the first floor of the Museum, MSV Day visitors may view new displays by two Shenandoah County artists participating in the Museum’s Art in the Halls program. In Glaize Hall, artist Kay Ely-Pierce has organized a display of 17 vibrant and colorful acrylic paintings. In Lewis Hall a playful display by graphic artist Tom Chipley includes 14 illustrations and paintings.

The Museum also includes a popular Museum Store, which will be open all day on Saturday, as well as the Museum Café by Bonnie Blue, which will be open from 11:30 a.m. until 2 p.m. 

The Museum of the Shenandoah Valley is located at 901 Amherst Street in Winchester, Virginia.  The MSV complex—which includes the Museum, the Glen Burnie House, and six acres of gardens—is open Tuesday through Sunday from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. The Museum is open year-round; the gardens are open seasonally. The gardens will reopen on April 1, 2014. The house is now closed until late spring of 2014 for a comprehensive preservation project. On days other than Saturday’s MSV Day, admission to the Museum is $10 for adults and $8 for seniors and youth (age 13 to 18). Museum admission is always free to ages 12 and under. Additional information is available at www.theMSV.org or by calling 540-662-1473, ext. 235.